Not guilty pleas for man charged over alleged Rotorua BNZ kidnappings

The Rotorua Courthouse. Photo / Andrew Warner

A man facing seven kidnapping charges and a charge of threatening to kill following a Rotorua bank incident has pleaded not guilty.

But the identity of the man must remain a secret, until at least April.

The man, who has interim name suppression, appeared in the Rotorua District Court today via audio-visual link before Judge Melinda Broek.

His lawyer, Andy Schulze, said a Section 38 report, which is a report to check if a person is mentally fit to stand trial, had only been received today.

He said he hadn’t had time to go through it with the man and it was also premature to lift name suppression until the contents of the report had been “properly ventilated”.

However, Schulze said to “kick things along” he would enter not-guilty pleas on his client’s behalf to all charges while discussions were still being had with police.

Judge Broek remanded the man in custody with continued name suppression until a case review hearing on April 19 at 2.15pm.

The man was charged following an incident at the BNZ bank in Rotorua Central just after 4pm on Thursday, November 10, 2022 that saw several shops and businesses put into lockdown while armed police dealt with the incident.